Body of Premature Baby Accidentally Sent to Laundry

March 2, 2006

OCEANSIDE, N.Y. — Nassau County, N.Y., authorities say the body of a premature baby girl was accidentally sent from a local hospital to a commercial laundry service last week, according to reports in Newsday and the New York Daily News.
The unnamed baby was born four months premature on Feb. 23 at South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside and died within a half-hour.
The baby was wrapped in a blanket, shrouded in plastic and taken to the morgue. Investigators believe a hospital worker didn't realize the body, which was 10 inches long and weighed 10 ounces, was among soiled linen being collected.
A worker at Oceanside Linen Services found the body while emptying a laundry cart. Authorities were able to trace the body back to South Nassau using a plastic ID ring around the baby's ankle.